


a gift for the damned

by dancingwiththewind (highfaenyx)



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, character study of a kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 08:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10567182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highfaenyx/pseuds/dancingwiththewind
Summary: Minako Aino does not believe in miracles.





	

Minako Aino does not believe in miracles.  
She believes in loyalty, power, determination and wit - but miracles are something of a completely different kind; they suit her princess, her queen more than her.  
Minako Aino is the High Senshi of the Solar System, the general, the warrior who traded her own love for duty, and sometimes she thinks that no one knows better that there is always a price to pay.  
Miracles cannot be called so if you sacrificed something for them to happen, right?

***

Out of all, the only one of all, she remembers.  
The Silver Millenia, the castles on the Moon and the gardens of Venus; summer days spent in the company of friends, winter nights - in the training rooms or near the fire. They laughed, argued, fell in love, lived as if the tomorrow would be as bright as yesterday and all the days before that.  
Then the darkness came, and Minako abandoned her dresses and her recklessness alike, took her chains and lead a war - not the one they tell you about in the legends, but the bloody and violent one. She betrayed, murdered, cut throats and crashed chests; eventually, she died and lost, they both lost - Minako and Kunzite, they failed and nothing in the world could rewind back time and correct that.   
We were innocent, Minako thinks, innocent and foolish - though maybe there was wisdom, too, in a way which she is not able - will not be able - to understand ever again; wisdom to believe in miracles and true magic, and winning wars without shedding blood. They did everything to protect that wisdom and innocence for Serenity and Endimion.  
They still do.

***

She remembers - she thinks she has always remembered; the memory penetrating her thoughts, her consciousness since she was a child, hitting in its all heavy weight when Minako became Sailor V.  
Minako lives with the pain in her chest for many, many years now.  
She’s accustomed to it, used to the scrutinizing feeling in her stomach, but she learned to smile through that suffering. At least, make other people believe that you can laugh, hide behind the mask of recklessness and foolishness, like you are still on the Venus, Minoria, High Senshi of the Solar System; like you didn’t die on the battlefield and betrayed all you fought for, she thinks.  
Minako is glad the others do not carry the weight she does.

***

Every time she sees him - either an Earth general, a dark lord or a warrior of light, in any place and any life she’s lived - her heart catches up in her throat, and starts beating fast. He is beautiful, Mina thinks, magnificent, and I’m still in love with him.   
She is in love with Kunzite; she gave up on that struggle a long time ago.  
Every time she sees him she wonders if he remembers; if he feels the same way.   
Sometimes it seems he does not recognize her - but his eyes flash when he gazes at her; sometimes she forgets what he looks like, what his eyes look like, and searches for strangers in the crowd.  
And sometimes they both see each other in an instant, and Minako knows that it is the time for the pain to ease, and then strike as hard as ever. 

***

«He said I am… my love is cursed for all eternity», Mina whispers, emotionless and stiff. These words followed her for too long, reminded about themselves every single breath, yet never spoken aloud - before now. She didn’t cry, didn’t want to succumb to that despair now, not now, when Kunzite held her like they were not two generals fighting an endless war but two ordinary, human lovers.  
But she feels tears on her cheeks anyway, and Kunzite tightens his grip on her back; in her hair he says quietly: «Even if we are, my dear Mina, the eternity has to end somewhere, doesn’t it?»  
She doesn’t answer, cannot answer, so he continues. «You and me - we were meant to be, as messed and complicated as we are, and it might be a single thing I have always believed in; and if takes all the time in the world to bring us together, once and for all, I don’t care».  
«I don’t care that you think you’re broken and lost, because I am too, and I do not know if we can ever be healed and redeemed. But we live, Mina, we live and do not dwell on the past».  
She keeps silent still, and so they stand, together, for a very long time, until Mina decides to break the embrace and tilts her head.  
«Thank you», she says quietly, to his icy blue eyes and proud chin.   
«Thank you for believing for me», she continues, «even when I abandoned any belief».   
He looks at her with a slight sadness in his eyes and answers, «How can I not when you remind me of it by your sole existence?» 

And in that moment Minako feels safe, feels protected, feels fearless.  
No, that wasn’t a salvation, not even close.  
Tears were still there. Pain was still there, in Mina’s chest and lungs, and she knew it would stay.  
But as she stood together with her lover, her friend, she realized there is something else.  
Something that made her embrace that pain every incarnation, something that made Kunzite do the same.  
Perhaps… hope?

***

There are no true miracles, not for us, Mina thought. Leave them for Usagi and Mamoru; bless the other senshi with it.   
But if we try again and again; if we defy fate, destiny, whatever entity which made us as we are; if we never give up, if we show that we cannot be brought down so easily, time after time; if we believe and hope in each other - then maybe, maybe, one day, we will create something, she thought. 

Something others will call a miracle.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this little endeavour!
> 
> I've always felt there was something more to Minako Aino than just a cheerful and a bit silly girl; she is the leader of the senshi, after all.   
> The most optimistic and easy-going of us are often scarred and have bitter stories to tell.
> 
> Comments and kudos are welcome, as always:)


End file.
